Lesson 3: Defining a Data-Driven Subscription

In this lesson, you use the data-driven subscription pages to connect to a subscription data source, build a query that retrieves subscription data, and map the result set to report and delivery options.

Before you start, verify that SQL Server Agent service is running. If it is not running, you cannot save the subscription.

This lesson assumes you completed Lesson 2 and that the report data source uses stored credentials.

Start the Data-Driven Subscription Wizard

In Report Manager, click Home, and navigate to the Employee Sales Summary report.

Open the report.

Right-click Subscriptions, and select New Data Driven Subscription. If you do not see this button, you do not have Content Manager permissions.

Type a description for the subscription.

For Delivery method, select Report Server File Share as the delivery method, and then click Next.

In User Name and Password, type your domain user name and password. Include both the domain and user account when specifying User Name.

Important Credentials used to connect to a subscriber data source are not passed back to Management Studio. If you modify the subscription later, you must retype the password used to connect to the data source.

Select Use as windows credentials when connecting to the data source, and then click Next.

To schedule a subscription

When the subscription runs, three report files will be delivered to the file share you specified, one for each subscriber in the Subscribers data source. Each delivery should be unique in terms of data (the data should be employee-specific), rendering format, and file format. You can open each report from the shared folder to verify that each version is customized based on the subscription options you defined.